


Pajama Party!

by die_traumerei



Series: The Triple Point [7]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Comfort, Cuddles, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, First Dates, Kissing, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-14 22:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17516849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/die_traumerei/pseuds/die_traumerei
Summary: A little ficlet from the Strike Gold universe -- this is Steve and Bucky's first date, to make up for the first first date going pear-shaped. It takes place during Chapter 11 of Strike Gold Along This Shore.





	Pajama Party!

**Author's Note:**

> Oh God this is just self-soothing and comfort and gahhhhhh. Whatever, we all need it, I hope you enjoy it. (There is not a whole lot of what you'd call plot, but it was great fun to write.) It was wonderful revisiting these three and I hope I can do so again someday. Preferably with a blanket nest.

“Hi guys!” Bucky said, bouncing into the apartment and right into Peggy's embrace. “Oooh, hello doll,” he told her especially, and gave her a kiss. Then another. Then a third.

“This is _my_ date,” Steve pouted, and Peggy looked unimpressed.

“Catch you later, sweetheart?” Bucky asked, because, technically, this _was_ Steve's date.

“Fine,” Peggy pouted. Sure she'd gotten Bucky all to herself for the start of the night on their ill-fated first date, but she was _greedy_ okay? No one in the world could blame her.

Bucky pulled her into a hug to say goodbye, though, and she melted like the giant softy he made her be.

“Come hang out with us later?” he whispered in her ear, words just for her. “Please?”

“Well, all right,” she mumbled, and finally let him go, shoving him a little towards Steve. “If you insist.”

Bucky cackled as he followed Steve down the hallway to their bedroom, already pre-made into a cocoon. The big iPad waited in a nest of plush blankets, and two steaming mugs of cocoa sat on the side table, complete with a plate of cookies.

“Oh, baby, you're _spoiling_ me,” Bucky sighed, crawling into the nest.

Steve grinned – he had sent Bucky instructions to dress in his comfiest clothes. Sure it had been great to gawk at him dressed to the nines, but this was more Steve's style. And Bucky was adorable in his sweatpants and fuzzy socks and a big, soft t-shirt. The t-shirt was emblazoned with a giant rainbow heart. Because Bucky was subtle like that.

Steve handed around the cocoa and snagged the plate of cookies, and joined him in the blanket nest with a kiss. “We can watch movies too – there's tons on the iPad – but I wanted to just, um. Enjoy you,” he tried to explain.

Bucky's face went soft, and he nestled into Steve's arms, neatly avoiding spilling anything from either of them. “I want you time too,” he said, and took a long sip of cocoa. “Oh, this is wonderful.”

“Thanks.” Steve rested his free hand on Bucky's hair, then stroked down to his back, pleased to find Bucky warm and at ease, his muscles soft under Steve's hand. It would be just their rotten luck for Bucky to have a bad body day.

Bucky turned his head just enough to kiss Steve's cheek. “This is what you like best, huh?” he asked. “Comfort and coziness and all that.”

Steve shrugged one shoulder. “I guess? I don't mind going out.”

“No, but this is what you picked.” Bucky nuzzled a little closer. “I like this too, for the record. But it also means I'll remember it. Give you dates you love.”

“Hey, I would have loved to dress up and go out with you,” Steve protested. 

“Really?” Bucky asked.

“Well, what I really enjoyed was seeing _you_ all dressed up, but I'll put on a button-down if I have to, to get that.” Steve grinned as Bucky laughed. “Okay, you have a point. This kind of stuff, where we touch and I can hold you and we're both soft and warm, this is probably my favorite.”

“That's fair. We'll do this a lot.” Bucky took another long sip of cocoa, and giggled when Steve started to feed him a cookie. “Thank you. Yum.”

“The bakery made them,” Steve admitted, and smiled at him. His _boyfriend_. How cool was that? “What kind of dates are your favorite, hon?”

“Special stuff,” Bucky said promptly. “Getting dressed up and doing my hair nicely and cologne and all of that. Looking amazing, and being a gentleman, and making sure my date – or dates – have a magical time.”

“Oh,” Steve breathed, and shook his head a little. “Please don't let my pyjama party stop you. That sounds...really special.”

“I promise, I'll do something that you love,” Bucky assured him, and leaned in for a soft kiss. “Want my Steve to feel special.”

“Believe me, I do.” Steve took a deep breath, going dizzy with the whole existence of Bucky. He kissed the soft skin of Bucky's throat, enjoying the way he could feel Bucky's breath hitch. The next kiss was a little higher, then a little higher still, the very faintest roughness of stubble – not even a five o'clock shadow yet, but give it a few hours. And then finding Bucky's mouth and getting drunk on kisses.

“I can't _believe_ we waited so long to do this,” Bucky mumbled, when they took a break to breathe.

“I will never, and I mean never, forgive myself for letting you think not being in our lives was the best choice,” Steve said. They'd set their mugs aside for the moment and curled together, knees to knees and foreheads together, in their little nest.

Bucky pressed metal fingers against Steve's mouth. “No. Stop, don't do that.” He moved his fingers for a kiss, and then put them right back. “No, listen to me. Don't carry that. It wasn't anybody's fault – we all wanted to protect each other. We'll make up for lost time, okay? I promise.”

Steve very definitely considered arguing, but he could  _feel_ Peggy glaring at him, so he didn't. This time. At the moment.

“I _promise_ , Steve,” Bucky said firmly, and gathered Steve up for a brain-searing kiss, so that Steve actually...kind of believed him?

Bucky nuzzled and kissed and caressed his dingbat, wonderful, good boyfriend until Steve was smiling again, and they were still snuggled together in their happy little spot. Steve pulled a corner of blanket over them, tucking Bucky's head under his chin and holding him close.

“I'm so happy,” Bucky sighed, worming his arms around Steve's waist. “That okay, baby? My metal arm's a li'l hard.”

“I'm so happy too,” Steve assured him. “You give good hugs, and your arm feels fine. Don't worry about that, okay?”

“Kay.” Bucky was smiling widely, and Steve treasured it, along with this quiet time that was just theirs, wholly for cuddling and loving on one another.

 

As they got their fill – for the moment – kisses turned to questions, idle and curious, in between little caresses, and of course all while still holding one another.

“Favorite gay elder?” Bucky asked, while tracing spirals on Steve's back.

“Larry Kramer,” Steve said, not missing a beat. 

“How very on-brand,” Bucky teased, and eased it with a kiss. “And how perfect. Really.”

“Yeah, yeah. Yours?”

Bucky was quiet for a long time, pressing a little closer to Steve. Yeah, sure, he'd come out as nonbinary. He'd remember that for the rest of his life...

 

Peggy had told Steve, because Bucky was a wimp about these things. And she had, bless her, told him while Bucky was out of the house. She had texted Bucky the heads-up that Steve knew, and he'd seriously thought about going home, worn out from PT, and just the whole day and the whole...everything. He should be proud and wild and glamorous, and he kind of was? Just not that night.

But he'd thought a little bit about who Steve was and a whole lot about trusting Steve, and had gone back to his boyfriend and girlfriend's house, and Steve had been in the living room, and looked up when Bucky let himself in.

“Hey,” he said, and smiled the way that make Bucky's knees go weak. “Hug?” he asked, and Bucky had floated across the room to crawl into Steve's lap, kneeling astride his thighs and falling into his arms.

“Hey,” Steve whispered.

“I'm sorry I couldn't tell you myself,” Bucky whispered back, and hid his face in Steve's neck.

“I'm sorry you're so scared,” Steve murmured in his ear, rubbing his back slow and easy. “Oh, Bucky, sweetheart. You're still my Bucky. I'm still crazy about you.”

“I know you would be, I just...” Bucky sighed and rested his full weight in Steve's arms. “I'm still crazy about you too. For the record.”

Steve laughed and kissed from his temple down his cheek, and Bucky turned his head and decided that he should come out a  _lot_ , if it meant he was going to be the focus of these lavish kisses, of Steve's arms locked around him, the safest thing in the whole world.

 

Bucky smiled, and remembered that night, and it was like a fire was in his heart. “I don't have one, really,” he admitted. “Not  _just_ one, anyway. But I think about Venus Xtravaganza a lot.” 

“Me too,” Steve agreed quietly, and tipped Bucky's chin up for a kiss. “I think you're the most special, magical, beautiful person in the world,” he said, getting her words close enough.

Bucky smiled, and kissed Steve back. “Thank you. You're pretty fucking special yourself.” He hugged Steve tight, and reveled in feeling safe.

They talked a little about plays they liked – Bucky admitted that he hadn't even read  _The Normal Heart_ , and Steve gushed about the tv adaptation. Neither had seen  _Angels in America_ , and both wanted to. Bucky liked August Wilson, and Steve confessed he basically just tried to read Hilton Als' column and was probably a Philistine.

Plays turned to books, which turned to films, and from there they rearranged themselves lightly, the better to watch the iPad.

Bucky kissed Steve's cheek, and rested his head on his boyfriend's shoulder. “Stevie? I'm sorry you felt awful the other night. But this is the best first date I've ever been on. Thank you.”

Steve tugged Bucky a little closer and rubbed his hip. “You're welcome. We'll do this lots, I promise.” He grinned. “With Peggy, too.”

“Well, we'd _better_.” Bucky gave him a blinding smile, and they nestled together. They quickly agreed on needing a movie just as comforting as the rest of their date, and with some debate, finally settled on _Tangled_.

(“It's a dark horse that's better than  _Frozen_ ,” Bucky maintained. Steve gave him a side-eye, but he also, Bucky noted, could not come up with a counter-argument, so there.)

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, all my fics should come with reading lists
> 
> [Larry Kramer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Kramer)  
> [Making Gay History podcast episode about Larry Kramer](https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/larry-kramer/)  
> [the Legendary Venus Xtravaganza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Xtravaganza)  
> Paris is Burning is on Netflix and Youtube, and you should all watch it.  
> [Hilton Als' extraordinary, beautiful review of the 2018 revival of Angels in America](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/angels-in-america-brilliant-maddening-and-necessary)
> 
> Oh, also, _Tangled_ is better than _Frozen_. I am right about this.


End file.
